From 2001 Until Today

Pilfer from the Filing Cabinet

Tag: 30in90

It looks like 30 in 90 won’t happen. I was on very good pace in early December: I was down to 361, 20 pounds down, with only a few days gone in the month. Keeping up that pace seemed realistic, holiday eating be damned. Then I got sick. I came down with a bear of a cold starting the night December 7th. Since then, I’ve not eaten that well, and I’ve not been walking, and I’m up to 365.4. That’s still 15+ lost since the beginning of October, which is nothing to sneeze at, but I will miss my goal since I’m unwilling to do a crazy diet to hit some number.

But 1) I will update here on 12/30 and 2) I will probably try this again in 2013. Having some external accountability has been helpful.

I just weighed myself: 381.2 lbs. That’s a lot of weight. In October 2010, it was 443. In January of 2010, when I first started making a concerted effort to lose weight, I was probably 455-460. The truth is, I was so heavy that most scales wouldn’t weigh me. I was also big enough that getting out of the car would cause me to honk the horn unless I turned the wheel 90 degrees with the engine off. Simply put, I was on my way to being dead by 45.

But I pulled back from that, obviously. My goal right now for 45 is being alive and done with three graduate degrees [MSE in Engineering Management, Ph.D. in Engineering Management, MSE in Aerospace Engineering]. That would be a nice thing.

But I can’t do that at 381.2 lbs, either. If I stay at that weight for that long—and I’ve been in this neighborhood for most of the last eight years, more or less—my quality of life is going to be for shit. [Not that it’s great right now.]

Here’s where you come in, other than to wince a little bit at all these numbers. I am an externally motivated person in a lot of realms. It’s just the way that my personality works. This is one of them. It is not easy to put those numbers up, even when you can infer that I’ve lost 75-80 pounds in the last 22 months. What I haven’t told you is that I’ve been stuck in this range since April, and that I’ve lost and gained back 10 pounds since May—and actually, I gained back most of the way to 390 and have lost back to where I am now in the last two weeks. 1

Simply put, I’m stuck, and I want your help in getting un-stuck.

My goal—nay, my mission—is to lose 30 pounds in the next 90 days. That’s totally doable, it’s medically safe, and it would be fun. I haven’t been at 350 since I was 25 or so. Yes, I want to go much further, as 225 is my target, but a little kickstart now would help.

How can you help? Simple.

I will weigh myself every few days, but if you want a status check, you email me, text me, tweet me (@gfmorris), or post on my Facebook timeline. The next opportunity that I get, I’ll go home, weigh myself, and report back on Facebook and Twitter—provided that I haven’t already weighed that day already. I’m your little monkey boy. [Okay, I’m your overweight ape.]

Here’s how I exact my pound of flesh: I’m going to ignore you if you don’t pledge to give money to the American Heart Association on December 31st, the 90th day of this exercise. I hope to be to 351.2 by mid-December, but I’ll go until I get there. If I make the weight, you have to give money. Cool?

Why the AHA? Well, both of my parents have had cardiac problems in the last year, and I had a ventricular septal defect as a child and am on my weigh (heh) to a heart attack of my own if I don’t change course. This is a charity that means something to me, so I’m throwing it out there. 2

You can make a comment here, on Facebook, or on the Twitters and I’ll make a spreadsheet. More pledges will make me work harder, and you get the tax break when I make the weight.